We have not attended those events at hotels. One was local and I signed up but DS refused to go.
Other events that get emailed to us, “We will be in your area!” are at over 2 hours in bad traffic weekday evenings.
The traffic can be bad even in the Wild West.
We have not attended any of the hotel events. There is one coming up that is a single school event for a school 6 hours away which is semi tempting but it’s dropped so low on the list I’m not sure the hour long rush hour traffic is worth it, we are registered for the NACAC event but unlikely to go. We did go to a CTCL event and that was actually quite beneficial though not as much as a 1:1 would be. Still, better than nothing!
On the NACAC admissions report, that’s just the publica though, correct? It doesn’t line up with what some of our CDS data shows for S’s schools.
@snoozn I have the same concern about rigor, fairly sure S will get the next box down, freshman year was “most rigorous” but sophomore year he took reg bio instead of honors and junior year reg us history instead of AP and suspect they may drop him down for that.
But…it is supposed to be in the context of your school and peers and if so, he may be ok. Hard to tell when we have a brand new GC! I can’t decide if I should ask her or the Head CC just so I know (if they will even tell) or leave it alone.
FTC - We don’t have that at our HS, but I just watched the video to check it out. A little surprising we don’t have a bigger program considering how many parents likely work at Qualcomm, the main FTC sponsor. I kind of like though that it’s kept lower key and not such a time suck during the school year.
@payn4ward We have a couple Mindstorms gathering dust, although the building parts get used for other creations.
@RightCoaster My FIRST kid has learned so much Solidworks in robotics that he’ll have an easy time if his freshman design course is anything like our older son’s.
@Collegecue scores – > amores
best.autocorrect.ever (not quite, but a nice one)
We have not done any of the college fair things. The schools that my son is interested in don’t attend any of them. They don’t even come to our high school which is weird, because in the next month we have about 100 schools attending for daytime info sessions with the students. Out of 100 schools coming, exactly zero interest son, ha. Probably better anyways, he can stay in class and learn, and not be tempted by new schools not on our list. 
Rigor: son is definitely not getting the most rigorous box checked. Some kids manage to take 8-12 AP classes, and my son is only taking 2 this year. He’s taken honors in every other class since freshman year though. I’m not worried about it at all, he’s not applying to schools with 8 percent acceptance rates.
@itsgettingreal17 Our HS does the same thing regarding absences. I think D2 is going to exceed the maximum number allowed because of college visits and surgery. If so, H and I plan to storm the bastions and ask for an exemption!
@payn4ward - I was the second coach for an FLL team for 1 year few years back. Unfortunately DS did 90% of the work and judges figured that so team didn’t go to world. Also, couple of parents thought I am a hard *** and become non cooperative, so we skipped next year and and ywar latwr went to FTC. FLL meetings are play dates for lot of kids. Most teams are formed based on friendships.
D2 just got her first acceptance letter. UAH – go Chargers! She wants Aerospace so it’s a strong option, especially with the automatic merit aid. <:-P
We’re hoping to hear from 'Bama any day.
We have not visited TAMU, it is not on our list as of now. I primarily wanted to know if any nmsf would be applying there for engineering and if so why or why not (impacted, not enough merit, offers less overall than UA, OU, etc.). The US news rank of #15 in Engineering plus the full tuition nmsf scholarship seems like an attractive combination.
Is your DC applying?
Add us to the lie of families with a mindstorm on the shelf gathering dust. S participates in FIRST FRC. His team is in fundraising mode.
No ACT for us or other standardized testing. S is done. He has no interest in studiying for more tests.
I wish we had better options for college fairs and events. There’s one college fair near us but it always overlaps a soccer game and usually doesn’t draw any of the schools S is interested in. The military and cosmetology schools are generally well represented, as well as the three state schools. I’ve not figured out why anyone goes to stand in line for 2 hours to talk to an admission rep from Iowa State when they could drive to the school and back in that time.
Oh well. The question inspired me to add a task for S to email the schools were not planning to visit until after acceptance just to see how close their reps get to us and when. He forgot to log off my computer the other day and I did see Tulane emailed they’d be in our area–if you call another state our area–so maybe others will be as well.
@nw2this ok, gotcha. We aren’t your people then since D is not NMF.
Our impression from the visit: huge department, huge classes = “come one,come all, we don’t really care and we have way too many students. But if you come, have fun duking it out with everyone else to maybe get your choice of engineering major.” They are letting some kids live on campus to “get the real feel of being an Aggie” but are sending them on bus daily to a local Jr. college because they flat out don’t have enough room for all the freshmen.
Very little diversity. Would be almost all in-state kids.
D was like “eh…let’s not.”
Thank you. That is really helpful. Will leave it off the list.
I’m behind. Haven’t posted anything in days.
** Visits ** Out of the 8 schools on S17’s list. We have visited 3, Oregon Schools & Cal Poly. We will visit 1 in October, he’s seen this school before but not as a prospective student. He might visit his safety in Dec, particularly as there is a good chance he will hear by then. Other than that he will visit the rest if he gets in.
** Happy/Unhappy with the list ** I happy with most of the schools except his safety. I re-evaluated a few of the schools after UC recently posted 2016 stats. I’m fairly comfortable he has 1 good safety, 4 match schools & 3 reach schools. As for his safety, One of the best fit schools is not only a match, but a high match and he will be applying EA to it. Thus if he gets in there, I won’t have to worry too much about the safety. Safety just have a number of strikes against it from it’s remote location (what he likes about it), reputation as a stoner school, and they fact that I think he can do a lot better.
@Ynotgo Not surprising he’s a bit confused. 
I’ve never been on USC campus either even though I’ve been the the museum’s nearby quite a few times. Only been on UCLA’s campus to go to a few shows. Mostly we visit museums. Honestly for years I barely ever went to into LA. Avoided it whenever possible, I drive through it more than i stop. When my D12 was a teen we started going in more to see some concerts. But this ends Monday, where I’m going to start commuting (via train) 2-4 times a month for work.
@New2this … If you have a kid who Loves football and doesn’t mind a huge program it could be a good fit. It is a solid program with a good reputation and a huge alumni network. It’s just not the experience my kid is looking for.
@carachel2 Wow, that was pretty brutally honest. And you said in another post that you’re an Aggie too? TAMU (or ATM as is on their helmets) would not be the right fit culturally for our kid so we aren’t considering it despite the generous scholarship. Great deal for a highly ranked school though for the right kid.
** QQTD age? ** Well I’ll be 50 before S17 goes to college next year. DH is a bit older. But this is our 2nd. My parents were about the same age, late 40’s. Hard to believe it, then seemed so old to me then.
** Collage Fairs ** We haven’t been yet. But I might encourage S17 to go if we find out about any local ones where the Colorado state schools will be attending.
@youcee …it killed me to write it out. For the most part I enjoyed my time at A&M.
I wanted D to like it or at least be able to see herself “working to make it work” for her if you know what I mean. It is our in-state option and I am pretty sure she would be admitted and would do fine there. It just seemed very impersonal.
But when I reflect back on my time there–it was a huge school and somewhat impersonal experience. I rarely had any meaningful interaction with faculty except at maybe my highest most senior class. I DID make friends there and saw them every day and the campus itself never felt huge and I did try to reassure her of that. Honestly, it wasn’t the campus itself that turned her off…it was the attitude of the admissions staff at the engineering session.
I tried to see the school through her eyes when we visited and I didn’t like what I heard and saw. Additionally, she is not a rah rah football person either so that doesn’t help. She kind of freaks out when she sees the footage of all the students doing the chants so passionately!
We perhaps need to compare apples to apples though and maybe schedule an honors tour there?
We had the opposite experience at UA. I know the program is not ranked as high, but the campus itself was homier and there are enough Honors experiences and activities that I think she can picture herself involved and finding her place.
Just my thoughts for our kid. It is still a great school with good opportunities–as evidenced by the top rankings.
What are you looking for in a school culturally?
Texas A&M Student profile
http://dars.tamu.edu/Data-and-Reports/Student/files/EPFA15.aspx